Eight Things You Should Know About Romney Running Mate Paul Ryan

Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Govermor Mitt Romney and Rep. Paul Ryan speak to an overflow crowd during a campaign rally at Randolph Macon College in Ashland, Va., on August 11, 2012.

He’s not your typical Congressman.
“I’m kind of a homebody,” he told TIME in 2010. “Half the reason I’m not in leadership is because I don’t want to spend my weekends flying around the country campaigning and raising money. I want to spend my weekends at home with my little ones. The other half of the reason — I like policy over politics.”

He’s health-conscious.At the age of 16, Ryan found his father dead of a heart attack at home. Both his grandfather and his great-grandfather died of heart disease in their 50s. Ryan, 42, is a health freak who runs daily grueling P90X classes for members and staff at the congressional gym. He was voted “biggest gym rat” by an anonymous poll of congressional staffers by Washingtonian magazine in 2010. Ryan himself has said his mortality is partly what has limited his ambitions.

He came of age in the fiscal right wing of the GOP.
As a young man, Ryan held numerous amusing summer jobs, including a stint as an Oscar Mayer salesman in which he drove a Wienermobile. He envisioned eventually going to the University of Chicago for an advanced degree in economics and becoming an economist/academic, but he says he “kept getting lured into politics.” He married his two interests by working for Jack Kemp and William Bennett at Empower America, where he learned about supply-side economics — and the politics that go with it. He later worked as a legislative aid to Kansas Senator Sam Brownback, during which time he waited tables and worked as a fitness trainer to make ends meet, before returning to Wisconsin to run for office.

He married into politics but across the aisle.
Ryan’s married to Janna Little Ryan, the niece of former Senator David Boren, an Oklahoma Democrat. Janna has huge family ties to Southern politics. They met while he was a staffer on the Hill. Together they have three children: two boys, ages 7 and 8, and a girl, age 9. Ryan recently began teaching his eldest, Liza, the art of bow-hunting deer. Ryan is also an avid fisherman of walleye and muskie.

He rose through the political ranks quickly.Elected to his first term in 1998, Ryan vaulted over a dozen more-senior Republicans to become ranking member on the Budget Committee in 2007. (He became chairman when the Republicans won the House at the end of 2010.) Ryan had planned for a long time to produce his own sweeping budget plan, but he lacked the “computer power” to crunch the numbers until he became ranking member. He spent much of 2007 working on what came to be known as his Road Map. Meanwhile, his first alternative budgets, in 2009 and 2010, were test runs for what eventually became a centerpiece of the Republican platform.

His vision for the U.S. is very controversial.
While much of the Tea Party ran in 2010 on a promise to enact Ryan’s plan, the Ryan budget remains contentious. Democrats have attacked it for voucherizing Medicare, and in spring 2011, then presidential candidate Newt Gingrich got himself into trouble with conservatives when he dubbed the plan “radical.” The GOP elite’s championing of the plan showed how the party had moved from the Bush era to the Tea Party era. “I fought for budget-process reforms and was thwarted by leaders in my own party,” Ryan told TIME in a 2009 interview. “I fought for earmark reform and was fought by leaders of my own party. Our party dropped the ball on fiscal issues. That doesn’t mean we should just stop trying for fiscal discipline. We need to reform our own party so that we don’t repeat that mistake.”

He’s less conservative on social issues.
Ryan generally avoids social issues like gay rights, a fact that has sometimes gotten him into trouble with conservative activists. In 2007 he voted for a bill that would ban employment discrimination based on sexual orientation. He explained that his vote was because he had friends “who didn’t choose to be gay … they were just created that way.” He later lamented that he “took a lot of crap” for that stance. He’s also backed versions of the Dream Act, and he voted for the auto bailout — a smart move given his representation of a district that lost nearly 17,000 jobs after GM and Chrysler shuttered facilities there.

He’s from a swing district.
Ryan’s congressional district in southern Wisconsin voted for Dukakis, Clinton and Obama — the latter, 51% to McCain’s 47% in 2008. But Ryan usually wins by large margins; he took 68% of the vote in 2008. The district’s economy is recovering from the Great Recession, as wealthy citizens from Chicago and Milwaukee have flocked to the region’s picturesque lake shores and gentrified urban areas, where lofts and art studios have replaced factories. It remains the home of S.C. Johnson and a few other big manufacturers. Its median annual income is $56,833, and it is 82% white.

Willard an Ryan are the biggest Slime Bags i ever seen. the will lie to you an tell you what you want to hear .America if you vote for them ,everything will go to hell .This Dictators will controll your Life with the Koch Brothers by there Side .This Greedy Bastard do not care for no one but them self .as soon as the get the White House ,there will be no Medicare or Socical Security.the have planned this from Day one .That is wyh Mc Connel from Kentucky an Canter would not Pass any Bill s why President Obama was Sworn in the same Day the all got together the Exstreme right an said we make sure he will be one Term President .that is the Reason the President did not get anything done. America do not vote for this Crooks

It seems to me that political people are all talk, and rubbish talk at that, and no do. Nothing gets past Congress. Every congressman, no matter the party, seems to simply build upon others' within his party. There are no more statesman. The last one was probably Theodore Roosevelt. We have SERIOUS money problems PERIOD. It's all phony-baloney money. But when we enter Walmart, it spends like real money, but it's taking more and more of it to do the job. We need a COMPLETE re-vamping of our govt, and a wiping out of the old legislative ways, but with special consideration to its former running. Why not simply dole out "money," say, $20,000 to each person each year? Forget about governments budgeting our lives. Shut 'em down. If you need asphalt paved out front of your house, pay for it from your governmental allotment. If you need a car, buy it. If you need an income, use your allotment to develop a business. Taxes do not exist. Make the most of your allotment, because you won't get any more until next year. The feds create funny money all the time any way, so what's the difference?

The time will come when we've decided a president. And no matter who it is, we'll have more problems then any commander and chief could fix. People will just vote for whoever best attempts to assures them that their views been right all along.

you got your facts where? Washington has stolen from the fund known as Social Security for decades, it has long been destroyed, and those that aren't eligible are signing up at alarming rates, even though they aren't legally entitled, but Liberals want more voters, so they promise more free stuff. Destroy Medicare? It was Obama that stole 740 Billion from Medicare to fund Obamacare. And cutting taxes, (it is proven time and time again) that reducing taxes stimulates spending, thus circulating more revenue for everybody to participate in the economy. So if you want to be a bomb thrower, go ahead, but like other liberals that spew untruths. I see you libs STILL think that Obama is the Messiah, but he is a true fraud, and has lied and undercut Americans as a whole, starting with his most transparent administration in history, but died in the wool naive will continue to vote for the loser and continue to send America to the sewer. He is re-elected and he will be balls to the wall left. Taking every cent from the so called rich, will fund government for less than 15 days. Then what, when they have no money, there are 350 more days of failure and corruption. But you clearly are ignorant, so keep on lying. People that want to be informed will research and see that he has run on a series of lies and deceit, and will vote otherwise. Anybody can lie, grow a pair and provide some proof. Wait, you cant, just like Obama cant, Reid cant, Pelosi cant, Wasserman cant. Their all full of shi+!!!

I know someone who lives in Janesville. Factories were shuttered and an auto plant shut down. Ryan did nothing to help his constituints. He was too busy trying to get his budget passed. The one he wants to end SSI ,medicare, farm aid, etc. Not a bad idea if everyone sacrificies,but being a minion of Scott Walker they usually just go after groups that support their opponent. It is called politiking.

nomination; it is considered one of the greatest political speeches in

American history. Soo, the gold Standard of Mc Kinley was looking like: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F... The Gold Standard Act of the United States was passed in 1900 (approved on March 14) and established gold as the only standard for redeeming paper money, stopping bimetallism (which had allowed silver in exchange for gold). It was signed by President William McKinley.

The Act fixed the value of the dollar at 25 8⁄10 grains of gold at 20%

purity, equivalent to 23.22 grains (1.5046 grams) of pure gold.

The Gold Standard Act confirmed the nation's commitment to the gold

standard by assigning gold a specific dollar value (just over $20.67 per

Troy ounce). This took place after McKinley sent a team to Europe to

try to figure out a silver agreement with France and Great Britain. On April 25, 1933 the United States and Canada dropped the gold standard. By: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G...

while everyone who earns , deserves to pay no more taxes than the other person, shouldnt the rich have a responsibility to pay a bit more to provide for the have nots in the society? otherwise, the have nots/not enoughs will never be able to get out of the condition. the state of a nation is a collective representation of all its people and their condition, not just the successful ones. sharing a bit when you have more than plenty is not communism or socialism. its called responsibility towards country above self.

America's productive beta males now have a leadership team: Two patriarchal family men who offer to represent the interests of middle-status men who feel disenfranchised by liberal policies which enable women to marry the state as surrogate husband (like the fictional Julia), reject beta males as lovers and potential husbands, and indulge in their appetites for alpha male bad boys and cads. Men know on some level that premarital sexual experience ruins women for marriage and family stability, and the ones who want to turn this around would like to see restrictions on abortions and Malthusian Belts for the Sandra Fluke types to increase the supply of sexually unspoiled women who would make good wives and mothers.